Talk:Dash

The word "dash" is often used differently

The article refers to the dash character, which of course has a well-established meaning. But people often use the word dash to refer to the hyphen character. This has been true for a long time, and is even more widespread with the rise of the internet. (Example: "The web address is oak dash valley dash hotel dot com.")

I understand the structure of the article, and I'm sure it's consistent with the structure of other articles describing each character. But I think this common usage should also be acknowledged.This may not be a "correct" usage, but it's a common and widespread. An encyclopedia should be descriptive rather than prescriptive. I'm not suggesting diluting the detailed description. But the article deserves a separate section to describe this this common and widespread usage of dash referring to hyphen.

Omc (talk) 17:31, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

You make a valid point. While the article correctly distinguishes between the dash and the hyphen based on their established typographic meanings, it’s also true that many people casually use "dash" to refer to a hyphen, especially in spoken contexts like reading out URLs. Given how widespread this informal usage is, acknowledging it in a separate section could add value to the article without undermining its technical accuracy. An encyclopedia should indeed reflect not just the formal definitions but also how language is used in practice. Jay7ash (talk) 15:23, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

It is already included, see #Types of dash. May have been added in response to that 2020 request. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 15:39, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. Jay7ash (talk) 15:47, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

Please add a row for entering characters in Google Docs (ad maybe Sheets and Presentations)

Rendering dashes on computers has rows for major text editing systems. Please add a row for Google Docs Richard C Haven (talk) 19:09, 14 February 2021 (UTC)

@Richardchaven:, welcome to Wikipedia. One of the first lessons you will learn is that if you want anything done around here, you have to do it yourself! We are all volunteers. Normally you would update the article yourself but updating tables can be a little bit risky. So may I suggest draft some text to go in the article, put it here, then someone will show you how to add it. Thank you. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 00:33, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Just to close this out, documentation that your vendor should provide is not a function of Wikipedia. See WP:NOTHOWTO. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 15:42, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

5x

I propose changing the 5x column of the Unicode table to include a "standard" letter as well. This would highlight the vertical position of the different forms of dash. An upper case M seems a suitable choice — as in M----- vs. M____ — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 12:09, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

Y No objections, so went ahead — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 11:14, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Good addition, but I was confused what "M and 5x" meant (whether it was just a typographical sample, whether M was special, etc), so I added an explainer sentence. If you can think of a less clunky way to describe that, feel free to change it! (@GhostInTheMachine)

KenyonP (talk) 18:05, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

Suspended section "Typing the characters". Wikipedia is not a manual.

I have temporarily commented out the section "Typing the characters". As it stood, it is an egregious violation of WP:NOTMANUAL and WP:DUE. It is bogged down in the detail of different OSs, different keyboards, different keyboard mappings. How is it encyclopedic? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 14:07, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

What am missing? I don't see any reference to specific OSs. WP:NOTMANUAL does discourage use of the imperative mood, but the imperative-mood use of the verb "see", present to help the reader find ⁠his/her⁠ way around in Wikipedia, is surely justified. The phrase "it became common" introduces a legitimate historical claim that is defective in that no source is provided, but that calls for Template:Citation needed, not for suppression of the claim. "It may also be possible ..." also requires elaboration but, again, editors may be be able to provide it.

The sentence beginning "It is common ..." is sourced to Robert Bringhurst. I am unfamiliar with his work — perhaps it can be used to support more of the section's claims?

Peter Brown (talk) 17:18, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

My concern is really that the section is a wp:cfork of Unicode input, QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, MsWindows, iOS, Linux, ChromeOS, etc. To give instructions on how to use Windows, iOS, Android, Linux to enter symbols is (IMO) just WP:UNDUE. Yes, we should use the WP:See also to point readers at this material but it is crazy to replicate it (in a variety of forms and detail) at each article about every symbol. It also seems probable that the whole thing has been technically obsoleted by autocorrect, which replaces a pair of hyphen-minuses with an mdash and a space hyhen-minus space with a spaced ndash.

Bringhurst is the touchstone reference for modern typography: you can borrow it via the WP:WikiLibrary. I can't recommend it too highly.

• Bringhurst, Robert (2004). The elements of typographic style (third ed.). Seattle: Hartley & Marks. ISBN 978-0-88179-206-5..

It doesn't contain anything (that I can recall) about how to do typesetting (or electronic equivalent) – nor would I expect that it would, for the same reasons as I've set out above. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 21:29, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Compound sentence

From:@Leyli Khankishieva

A sentence that has at least two independed clause joined by comma or conjunction 37.61.116.126 (talk) 03:39, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

two hyphens

The section on two hyphens being used as a substitute for an em dash should include a clear note that much software (e.g., MSW and Open Office) automatically convert -- to and em dash. Kdammers (talk) 14:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Dash#Approximating the em dash with two or three hyphens describes the principle. Per WP:NOTMANUAL and WP:UNDUE, I don't think it is appropriate to go into that level of detail. --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 16:34, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

em dash and AI

Perhaps this article should be added to the AI discussion: Variations on the Em-Dash: From Flash of Insight to AI as Stylized Cognition Kdammers (talk) 14:55, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

tl;dr but on the face of it, the section Dash#Usage in AI-generated text is already adequately supported by citations and doesn't need yet another. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 16:28, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

"Horbar" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Horbar has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2026 January 18 § Horbar until a consensus is reached. consarn _{(talck) (contirbuton s)} 14:40, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Spaces are important

A dash (or hyphen) without spaces connects two words: "blah—blah", "1950—2050".

A dash with spaces separates parts of a sentence: "Blah blah blah — blah blah blah — blah blah blah."

~2026-56669-68 (talk) 07:16, 23 October 2026 (UTC)

National conventions vary. Modern practice is to use spaced ndashes to separate parts of a sentence but US practice continues to use the (unspaced) mdash.

I believe that the article already explains all this. Is there something that is not clear? 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 09:57, 23 October 2026 (UTC)

Edit request: measured em dash frequency on Reddit

I'm affiliated with KissMyPost, which ran the analysis below, so I have a conflict of interest and am not editing the article myself.

Proposed addition to the end of "Usage in AI-generated text":

A 2026 analysis of Reddit posts by the analytics service KissMyPost, reported by the Ukrainian tech outlets Mezha and dev.ua, found that the share of posts containing an em dash rose from 0.70% in early 2021 to 6.53% in 2025. The authors cautioned that this is not direct evidence of AI use, noting a smaller earlier rise (0.29% to 0.53%) after iOS 11 began converting two hyphens into an em dash.

The last reference is the original study (my own, with the dataset on Zenodo); I've included it for the methodology, but please drop it if you prefer secondary sources only. Thanks, Krutytskyi (talk) 14:41, 31 October 2026 (UTC)

References